Good morning! That table decoration is at the Catholic Hospital. St. Joseph’s, one of the many hospitals taken over by Emory in Atlanta.
Another early morning excursipn for us. We went to the county property tax office to apply for homestead exemption. So glad we finally will get that after all these years of paying school taxes which we never benefitted from personally.
That makes thrre days in a row to be up and about business early. Monday wellness check with doc; Tues. lab work; and, Wed. county property tax office. Tomorrow I have a later appt. to do a simulation scan, a redo of what I did before to once again prepare for radiation. We are getting all around town this week.
Have we ever asked about whether we have a favorite Christmas ornament and, if so, what is it?
I have a tiny bell with an angel hanging from the ‘rope’ attached to the ‘gong’ inside it. It was from my grandmother, and I got it after she passed away. I have several ornaments I treasure because of the memories associated with them.
Today I read a beautiful sonnet about the angel’s announcement to Mary and her acceptance. I was supposed to only read half of it, but it was so good I had to read the second half. Tomorrow, I will reread it and the comment on the second half. The thought I had was that we are all called upon to take up our cross and follow the Lord. Mary did just that when she accepted what the angel told her. Few people around her would realize that as she lived her life bringing up her special son. How often we miss seeing it today as we live our lives and watch others live theirs.
May I ask why you didn’t get that before, Janet? You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to do so. You will still pay for the schools, right? Actually, everyone does still benefit from paying for the schools. It is supposed to be the way to make sure we have educated citizens. The next generations will be running everything. That is kind of scary right now. I do know good teachers etc. who work hard to accomplish that, however.
Speaking of raisins, as we were yesterday, besides enjoying them in oatmeal cookies, I really liked them in a raisin rice pudding custard recipe I use to make that came ftom a Marriott Hot Shoppes cookbook. The dish steamed/baked in a water bath in the oven and cooked up into a custard layer over a bed of slightly gooey rice and raisin pudding. I miss that wonderful concoction. I took it sometimes to covered dish luncheons.
Good question on the ornament, Kathaleena. It’s been some years since I had my ornaments out, but I remember a little red truck given by a preschool student, some olive wood cutouts of musical instruments with names of carols on them, and a rather large metal white basket with some red berries and greenery in it. I also have some wooden dolls with bendable legs that I like to put in the middle atop branches to hide the center tree trunk. So it’s difficult for me to choose only one.
Morning all! How I love the colors and textures of that arrangement up there. Very pleasing to the eye. Reminders of why we celebrate 🎄
In CO one must have lived in their home for 10 consecutive years and be 65 or older to qualify for the Homestead exemption. We qualified last year and saw about a 500 dollar reduction on our tax bill. “They” always remind the taxpayer that this benefit will apply only as long as “they” have the funding but this was voted on by our residents. Why wouldn’t “they” have the funding? Hmmmm
Ah…and my favorite ornament would be the angel my baby sister sent to me upon my asking “whatever happened to the angels we had a little girls?”. I don’t put her on the tree however. She sits on the bottom shelf of my barrister bookcase year round.
Oh, maybe I said the wrong thing calling ithg homestead exemption. It is an exemption for people 70 years and older within a certain tax bracket to no longer pay school taxes. In the past Art said his lump sum deferred comp payments threw us over the incomeclimit to get the exemption, but I guess income ftom the business was down enough so we now qualify.
I agree in theory about what you said that we benefit from educated citizens, Kathaleena, however, the ways people are educated by the system now are detrimental to being good citizens. It is sad. My friend commented last night how the top person in her adjoining county has said that white children are evil, etc. They are teaching hatred in the schools, sexual doctrination, and so much that goes against a good education. The violence is over the top now, too.
I greeted you all this morning, on the prayer thread. Sorry. A bit sleep deprived. I generally run on nine hours of sleep but it has been about four the past week or so.
As to the young folk helping: that would be ideal but not in their makeup at this time. They do the outside chores, dishes, sweeping and such. They do help with incidentals like holding Grandpa’s chair so he can sit without it rolling away, getting one or the other a pop, bringing their trays. But personal care is not there yet. We have had others who could step up to that but not these two, yet.
Okay, finished with the intake social worker and the first visit nurse so they are somewhat familiar with us and our situation and my dad was quite cooperative. Hopefully, that will stick. A lot to be said for having the nurse come to you rather than packing up into a car, driving, sitting around in a waiting room.
Met the prospective dog today, Abby, and while she seemed a little more skittish than what I expected — it’ll take some patience and some work — think it’ll be a good match.
We all thought it would be best if they delivered her to me, however, as taking her out of the foster home (she’s now used to) for what would be an hour’s + drive back to my place and just dropping her into a new home would maybe upend the poor thing.
I’ll check in with a dog-savvy friend or two, including the dog trainer I know, and get some feedback, but by the end of the visit — we also walked her — I felt she’d calmed down quite a bit. At first she was just very skittish, took her a while to let me pet her.
She’s very afraid of brooms, which makes foster thing she maybe was abused somewhat — she came from a shelter and shelters no longer provide any background on these dogs, will only tell you if there’s aggression or bites reported. She’s not showing any aggression at all which is a big plus, and plays well with all the other dogs in the household (quite a few, fosters and residents — along with outdoor horses, a tortoise and assorted other critters). She seemed curious but fine with the little kitten also running around.
She won’t be a dog who’s ready for a lot of new things at first, we’d have to take it slow, start with maybe just leash walks to the corner and back initially, time together in the backyard playing — she’s not great with a leash, she kept wrapping herself around me and going back and forth, switching sides as we tried to walk, even when I kept the leash super short. She walked well with the foster’s husband, though — she’s used to walking with him and he used to be a group dog-walker in the neighborhood.
Basic obedience classes will need to start soon but I can work with her in the meantime, I’ve been through enough dogs and enough classes that I know most of the basics to get us started.
She seems curious and sweet but very, very cautious, she flinched at the broom and knocked the foster over as she was coming to answer the door; said it was the first time she realized a broom was a trigger for the dog. You kind of worry about fear aggression in some of those cases, but foster is very seasoned (a semi-retired RN, their daughter is a vet tech nearby). and she’s had Abby for at least 2 months and said there’s nothing like that showing up, not even food aggression or guarding, she eats alongside the other household dogs without issues.
We had some rescue contacts in common, including the SoCal Aussie Rescue founder I adopted my former dog Pilgrim from — they were great friends and she was active in that group as a foster before switching to the border collie group after the founder of the Aussie group passed away in April and the new operators don’t strike her as very savvy.
So we’ll see, I told her most likely it’s all a go, but I will talk to another person or two first. I’m off next week (I think) so maybe we can plan for them to deliver Abby then if they’re available to do that. My main concern is whether she can be brought out of her skittishness — I think she can. But would like a dog-trainer friend’s opinion as well. Maybe I could even put a call in to my vet. Hard for them to say without observing her, but they could maybe give me some thoughts with my description and the assessment from the foster.
Cowboy was shy and insecure when he first came here, so I was expecting something like that — but Abby is sort of a step or two beyond that, shy but also quite skittish, more fearful acting (at first, but she did calm down after a while, I was there for over 2 hours). She seems also very curious.
Foster said Abby’s OK with guys, but definitely seems to prefer women, but is fine with her husband so it’s not a real pronounced preference.
Foster thinks she’s only about 1 year old, very playful. And she is beautiful.
I like her name, Dj. I assume you would keep the name? She sounds like a fine dog who will settle in nicely with a loving owner (my funny typo said ‘living owner’).
Oh Dj I do hope Abby is a keeper!
If she is but a year old she would be Pip’s same age…she will be one on the 23rd….next week! Pip is rather untrusting of strangers and will bark with hair standing on end at them. We would like to have her better socialized with others here at home but honestly no one comes over! She loves Dan our neighbor and Michael our other neighbor whose grand dog is her playmate when visiting. But she will bark and bark at my neighbor with whom I walk most days. Then again Paul hung his jacket on a fence post today while he had the dogs on a hike. When they came back down off the mountain Pip kept barking at the jacket on the fence post! She thought it was a person I suppose! She also growled and barked at a carved wooden bear at the Vet office!! 😂
And while Paul was in KY at the end of October I decided to make a chocolate cake (he doesn’t like sweets around due to temptation of eating them!) as I was icing the cake Pip stood back growling then barking…at the cake!! Goofy dog!
I remember one of my dogs, when I first brought them home, doing a comical jump back and double-take at a fairly large border collie (with realistic eyes) door stopper I have in the house. yikes!
I would love to introduce Abby to the world (and yeah, I like the name, too, and will plan to keep it; plus, with a dog like that, the fewer changes probably the better!). Walking on the waterfront, going to the beach. But slowly, probably would start out with short, quick walks just in the neighborhood for a few days so she could get a feel for the territory.
Foster said she needs lots of encouragement, she talks to her constantly about what a GOOD DOG she is. Also said she’s actually come a long way from when the rescue first got her out of the shelter somewhere out in the desert where she was seemed quite traumatized.
Nightingale’s Janie is a naturally nervous dog, which is sad. We’ve never given her any reason to be afraid or cautious of us, and have had her since she was eight weeks old.
Talked with a dog trainer I know who’s familiar with herding dogs (she’s trained and shows shelties), she feels Abby will just need a lot of calm, one-on-one time, encouragement. She said also taking her out to places where people gather, parks, playgrounds, but staying on the perimeter and rewarding her with treats when she is calm.
The name Abby is both a boy’s name and a girl’s name of Hebrew origin meaning “my father is joyful”. Gently old-fashioned stand-alone nickname that owes its popularity to mega popular Abigail. ~
DJ, Abby sounds pretty wonderful. Our Keva was a skittish boy, but we learned to work with it and encourage him when he needed to walk by something and he was shying from it. It did take a gentle hand and much encouragement, but he was the most wonderful dog.
Our new boy will simply sit or lie down while he ponders something new, then he will try whatever it is we want him to do. Like go through the large revolving doors at the hotel.
My favourite ornament is from the ’50s. Pale pink with the indent and pointed ends. So delicate.
Thanks, Kare, I think my biggest unspoken concern is the potential for fear aggression developing — no sign of that yet, but anxious dogs can go that way. But not all shy dogs exhibit that.
Favorite ornament: Has to be the bird nest my mom found in one of our backyard trees one year. It was a regular “ornament” every year after that, with a little ornament bird later set into it.
It is no more, sadly, as the boxes of Christmas ornaments vanished somehow during the house and garage clear-out after she’d died.
Good morning, all. We got up at 3:50 this morning. I got him to go back to bed but only for ten minutes. So here we are. But grandpa was last up at midnight, for a light supper. Nearly four hours of consecutive sleep. A definite improvement!
Wandering Views 
Good morning! That table decoration is at the Catholic Hospital. St. Joseph’s, one of the many hospitals taken over by Emory in Atlanta.
Another early morning excursipn for us. We went to the county property tax office to apply for homestead exemption. So glad we finally will get that after all these years of paying school taxes which we never benefitted from personally.
That makes thrre days in a row to be up and about business early. Monday wellness check with doc; Tues. lab work; and, Wed. county property tax office. Tomorrow I have a later appt. to do a simulation scan, a redo of what I did before to once again prepare for radiation. We are getting all around town this week.
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What a beautiful arrangement!
Have we ever asked about whether we have a favorite Christmas ornament and, if so, what is it?
I have a tiny bell with an angel hanging from the ‘rope’ attached to the ‘gong’ inside it. It was from my grandmother, and I got it after she passed away. I have several ornaments I treasure because of the memories associated with them.
Today I read a beautiful sonnet about the angel’s announcement to Mary and her acceptance. I was supposed to only read half of it, but it was so good I had to read the second half. Tomorrow, I will reread it and the comment on the second half. The thought I had was that we are all called upon to take up our cross and follow the Lord. Mary did just that when she accepted what the angel told her. Few people around her would realize that as she lived her life bringing up her special son. How often we miss seeing it today as we live our lives and watch others live theirs.
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May I ask why you didn’t get that before, Janet? You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to do so. You will still pay for the schools, right? Actually, everyone does still benefit from paying for the schools. It is supposed to be the way to make sure we have educated citizens. The next generations will be running everything. That is kind of scary right now. I do know good teachers etc. who work hard to accomplish that, however.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Speaking of raisins, as we were yesterday, besides enjoying them in oatmeal cookies, I really liked them in a raisin rice pudding custard recipe I use to make that came ftom a Marriott Hot Shoppes cookbook. The dish steamed/baked in a water bath in the oven and cooked up into a custard layer over a bed of slightly gooey rice and raisin pudding. I miss that wonderful concoction. I took it sometimes to covered dish luncheons.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Good question on the ornament, Kathaleena. It’s been some years since I had my ornaments out, but I remember a little red truck given by a preschool student, some olive wood cutouts of musical instruments with names of carols on them, and a rather large metal white basket with some red berries and greenery in it. I also have some wooden dolls with bendable legs that I like to put in the middle atop branches to hide the center tree trunk. So it’s difficult for me to choose only one.
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Morning all! How I love the colors and textures of that arrangement up there. Very pleasing to the eye. Reminders of why we celebrate 🎄
In CO one must have lived in their home for 10 consecutive years and be 65 or older to qualify for the Homestead exemption. We qualified last year and saw about a 500 dollar reduction on our tax bill. “They” always remind the taxpayer that this benefit will apply only as long as “they” have the funding but this was voted on by our residents. Why wouldn’t “they” have the funding? Hmmmm
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Ah…and my favorite ornament would be the angel my baby sister sent to me upon my asking “whatever happened to the angels we had a little girls?”. I don’t put her on the tree however. She sits on the bottom shelf of my barrister bookcase year round.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh, maybe I said the wrong thing calling ithg homestead exemption. It is an exemption for people 70 years and older within a certain tax bracket to no longer pay school taxes. In the past Art said his lump sum deferred comp payments threw us over the incomeclimit to get the exemption, but I guess income ftom the business was down enough so we now qualify.
I agree in theory about what you said that we benefit from educated citizens, Kathaleena, however, the ways people are educated by the system now are detrimental to being good citizens. It is sad. My friend commented last night how the top person in her adjoining county has said that white children are evil, etc. They are teaching hatred in the schools, sexual doctrination, and so much that goes against a good education. The violence is over the top now, too.
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I greeted you all this morning, on the prayer thread. Sorry. A bit sleep deprived. I generally run on nine hours of sleep but it has been about four the past week or so.
As to the young folk helping: that would be ideal but not in their makeup at this time. They do the outside chores, dishes, sweeping and such. They do help with incidentals like holding Grandpa’s chair so he can sit without it rolling away, getting one or the other a pop, bringing their trays. But personal care is not there yet. We have had others who could step up to that but not these two, yet.
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I looked at the paperwork and saw it is a senior/disability homstead exemption.
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If you have time for a little theological speculation, this is an interesting piece I just read on Twitter:
https://theopolisinstitute.com/who-was-judahs-wickedest-king-kings-romans-118ff/
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Okay, finished with the intake social worker and the first visit nurse so they are somewhat familiar with us and our situation and my dad was quite cooperative. Hopefully, that will stick. A lot to be said for having the nurse come to you rather than packing up into a car, driving, sitting around in a waiting room.
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Just seen on Facebook, “Don’t be afraid of tomorrow. God is already there.”
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Tomorrow I should be getting my new 6 week M-F schedule for radiation treatments. If it is during holidays, I believe they give a day off for those.
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Met the prospective dog today, Abby, and while she seemed a little more skittish than what I expected — it’ll take some patience and some work — think it’ll be a good match.
We all thought it would be best if they delivered her to me, however, as taking her out of the foster home (she’s now used to) for what would be an hour’s + drive back to my place and just dropping her into a new home would maybe upend the poor thing.
I’ll check in with a dog-savvy friend or two, including the dog trainer I know, and get some feedback, but by the end of the visit — we also walked her — I felt she’d calmed down quite a bit. At first she was just very skittish, took her a while to let me pet her.
She’s very afraid of brooms, which makes foster thing she maybe was abused somewhat — she came from a shelter and shelters no longer provide any background on these dogs, will only tell you if there’s aggression or bites reported. She’s not showing any aggression at all which is a big plus, and plays well with all the other dogs in the household (quite a few, fosters and residents — along with outdoor horses, a tortoise and assorted other critters). She seemed curious but fine with the little kitten also running around.
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She won’t be a dog who’s ready for a lot of new things at first, we’d have to take it slow, start with maybe just leash walks to the corner and back initially, time together in the backyard playing — she’s not great with a leash, she kept wrapping herself around me and going back and forth, switching sides as we tried to walk, even when I kept the leash super short. She walked well with the foster’s husband, though — she’s used to walking with him and he used to be a group dog-walker in the neighborhood.
Basic obedience classes will need to start soon but I can work with her in the meantime, I’ve been through enough dogs and enough classes that I know most of the basics to get us started.
She seems curious and sweet but very, very cautious, she flinched at the broom and knocked the foster over as she was coming to answer the door; said it was the first time she realized a broom was a trigger for the dog. You kind of worry about fear aggression in some of those cases, but foster is very seasoned (a semi-retired RN, their daughter is a vet tech nearby). and she’s had Abby for at least 2 months and said there’s nothing like that showing up, not even food aggression or guarding, she eats alongside the other household dogs without issues.
We had some rescue contacts in common, including the SoCal Aussie Rescue founder I adopted my former dog Pilgrim from — they were great friends and she was active in that group as a foster before switching to the border collie group after the founder of the Aussie group passed away in April and the new operators don’t strike her as very savvy.
So we’ll see, I told her most likely it’s all a go, but I will talk to another person or two first. I’m off next week (I think) so maybe we can plan for them to deliver Abby then if they’re available to do that. My main concern is whether she can be brought out of her skittishness — I think she can. But would like a dog-trainer friend’s opinion as well. Maybe I could even put a call in to my vet. Hard for them to say without observing her, but they could maybe give me some thoughts with my description and the assessment from the foster.
Cowboy was shy and insecure when he first came here, so I was expecting something like that — but Abby is sort of a step or two beyond that, shy but also quite skittish, more fearful acting (at first, but she did calm down after a while, I was there for over 2 hours). She seems also very curious.
Foster said Abby’s OK with guys, but definitely seems to prefer women, but is fine with her husband so it’s not a real pronounced preference.
Foster thinks she’s only about 1 year old, very playful. And she is beautiful.
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Pics Dj.
😀
Once you get her home.
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I like her name, Dj. I assume you would keep the name? She sounds like a fine dog who will settle in nicely with a loving owner (my funny typo said ‘living owner’).
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A friend just posted about her daughter’s beloved dog passing and its name was Bella Rose which I really liked.
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Art gave me a 100.00 gift card he received from a client. What would you do with that?
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Oh Dj I do hope Abby is a keeper!
If she is but a year old she would be Pip’s same age…she will be one on the 23rd….next week! Pip is rather untrusting of strangers and will bark with hair standing on end at them. We would like to have her better socialized with others here at home but honestly no one comes over! She loves Dan our neighbor and Michael our other neighbor whose grand dog is her playmate when visiting. But she will bark and bark at my neighbor with whom I walk most days. Then again Paul hung his jacket on a fence post today while he had the dogs on a hike. When they came back down off the mountain Pip kept barking at the jacket on the fence post! She thought it was a person I suppose! She also growled and barked at a carved wooden bear at the Vet office!! 😂
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And while Paul was in KY at the end of October I decided to make a chocolate cake (he doesn’t like sweets around due to temptation of eating them!) as I was icing the cake Pip stood back growling then barking…at the cake!! Goofy dog!
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I hope she’s a keeper, too.
I remember one of my dogs, when I first brought them home, doing a comical jump back and double-take at a fairly large border collie (with realistic eyes) door stopper I have in the house. yikes!
I would love to introduce Abby to the world (and yeah, I like the name, too, and will plan to keep it; plus, with a dog like that, the fewer changes probably the better!). Walking on the waterfront, going to the beach. But slowly, probably would start out with short, quick walks just in the neighborhood for a few days so she could get a feel for the territory.
Foster said she needs lots of encouragement, she talks to her constantly about what a GOOD DOG she is. Also said she’s actually come a long way from when the rescue first got her out of the shelter somewhere out in the desert where she was seemed quite traumatized.
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Nightingale’s Janie is a naturally nervous dog, which is sad. We’ve never given her any reason to be afraid or cautious of us, and have had her since she was eight weeks old.
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That is sad, Kizzie.
Talked with a dog trainer I know who’s familiar with herding dogs (she’s trained and shows shelties), she feels Abby will just need a lot of calm, one-on-one time, encouragement. She said also taking her out to places where people gather, parks, playgrounds, but staying on the perimeter and rewarding her with treats when she is calm.
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I’ll take it, Janice. 🙂 Just kidding, of course. You could buy something very comfortable and easy to wear for your radiation treatments.
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~ Abby Origin and Meaning
The name Abby is both a boy’s name and a girl’s name of Hebrew origin meaning “my father is joyful”. Gently old-fashioned stand-alone nickname that owes its popularity to mega popular Abigail. ~
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DJ, Abby sounds pretty wonderful. Our Keva was a skittish boy, but we learned to work with it and encourage him when he needed to walk by something and he was shying from it. It did take a gentle hand and much encouragement, but he was the most wonderful dog.
Our new boy will simply sit or lie down while he ponders something new, then he will try whatever it is we want him to do. Like go through the large revolving doors at the hotel.
My favourite ornament is from the ’50s. Pale pink with the indent and pointed ends. So delicate.
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Thanks, Kare, I think my biggest unspoken concern is the potential for fear aggression developing — no sign of that yet, but anxious dogs can go that way. But not all shy dogs exhibit that.
Favorite ornament: Has to be the bird nest my mom found in one of our backyard trees one year. It was a regular “ornament” every year after that, with a little ornament bird later set into it.
It is no more, sadly, as the boxes of Christmas ornaments vanished somehow during the house and garage clear-out after she’d died.
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Good morning, all. We got up at 3:50 this morning. I got him to go back to bed but only for ten minutes. So here we are. But grandpa was last up at midnight, for a light supper. Nearly four hours of consecutive sleep. A definite improvement!
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But apparently people on the east coast are sleeping the day away.
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